Devil May Care, the 15th Bond book announced

July 12, 2007, 10:02 AM

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/enter...N#vote_6291652

So to celebrate (what would have been) Ian Fleming's 100th birthday next year, his estate listed an author to write a new James Bond novel. The man chosen was Sebastian Faulks, and he titles his book "Devil May Care."
So far he hasn't given any details to the plot (or none that I could find anyway), but the book apparently keeps much to the same style of Fleming's originals.
And being the huge Bond fan that I am, I can't wait until 28th May next year now.

July 12, 2007, 10:05 AM

I havent read any of the books but love the films. Are the books any good? Better or worse than the movies?

July 12, 2007, 10:07 AM

I can't say for definite, since I've only read Casino Royale and Live And Let Die, but they were both very good. I preferred the Casino Royale movie, but Live And Let Die was an amazing book. Both of them are very different from the film adaptations though, particularly Live And Let Die.

July 19, 2007, 7:01 PM

The books are good, but often only the core of the plot is the same in the movie. In some (The Spy who Loved Me, for example), only the name was allowed to be used. Fleming is very good at description, dialogue and pacing.

His successor, John Gardner, lost the plot a bit. While a good writer in his own right, the essence of Bond was lost. He wrote 13 books, I believe, including a couple of movie translations.

I have Raymond Benson's books, but haven't read them yet. I do know that he gets a bit more descriptive and graphic in the sex scenes, however.

As for this new book, while I'm glad it's happening, the title's lame. "Devil May Care" is a term often used to describe Bond himself, so it's a little too "on the nose," as it were, and comes off (to me, at least) as particularly uncreative.